12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 66

Date: 03/07/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Practice room B at South Whidbey High School. Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

From dawn to past dusk today was filled to the brim with teaching–changing clothes in the ferry bathroom and eating soup out of a tupperware container in my car. It was a good, solid working day that made me feel like I contributed my all by the end of it. I had attempted at various times throughout the day to sneak away and record a piece, but with no results I could be satisfied with. My improvisation today came out of the horn at the end of the day, when I was exhausted and my energy having already been sapped out of me. With every passing second in this improvisation I could feel it surging back.

This improvisation uses a single fingering: (Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys. This fingering creates the basis of sound explored in this piece. To create the pulsations I quickly opened and then shut the low Eb and Palm D keys simultaneously. I approached the improvisation as a slow, ominous build that immediately enters from a heightened place of energy. This was not anger, but a last ditch utterance of my industry.

-Neil

Image by painter Max Ernst